"Wedding" on Wednesday.

Yes, we got married today at Mail 'n More.  

We got a document notarized there that says we're claiming a common law marriage, for the purpose of saving money on benefits at Dan's work.  (My health insurance will be cheaper as a "wife" than a "domestic partner.")

Here's Dan dropping the document in the parking lot on the way in, and chasing after it.

We had already each bought our own rings a few months prior.  Awww ...

Gabe took a picture of us at Mail 'n More but said that we looked "lame."  (We did.)  So he took another one later in front of the house.

Max was sitting on the ground during the previous shot, but of course he started eating grass.  So we had to pick him up to have another picture taken.

Daddy and Max.

My boys and me.

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Oh yeah, and we also went to Party City today and bought some good stuff for the Ancient Egypt party ...

... and also some other stuff we didn't need.

Scooby and Max.

This evening there was a stray calf running down our street.  I couldn't tell what it was from a distance, and we thought it might be the cougar.  (Family legend is that there is a real cougar living down our street.  Dan's cousin Christopher claims to have seen it.)  I finally got Gabe to start pronouncing it "cougar," and not "cooger" (rhyming with "booger").

I wanted to go help the calf.  Dan, remembering the puppy incident, said, "Amy, we are not going to take in a pet cow" ...

And they lived happily ever after.

Texas history and the Trojan horse on Tuesday.

They started a unit on Texas history at Gabe's little school.  I asked him what he knows about it so far.  He said, "Nothing."

This may be a little incongruous with our home study unit on Ancient Greece.

Here's a picture of the Trojan horse Gabe drew.

Here's Hercules with a character Gabe made up named Snoth, the son of Hades.  Snoth is throwing a boulder.

Here are a mixed combination of characters:  Perseus, a cyclops, Pan, and Scooby Doo ...

Oh, and here is Trogdor the Burninator (from Strongbad).

Here are Mom and Dad putting a pink ribbon on Nathan's head tonight ...

... and Brian catching them at it.

Why must we make frog faces at the camera?

Playing in the backyard.  More news:  Tomorrow is Dad's last day of work before he retires.  Gabe and Joe's soccer rosters will be available Thursday, so we're hoping they'll be on the same team.  Friday the new Clash of the Titans movie comes out.  Oh, and Dan and I might get married tomorrow at Mail 'n More.

Max's many moods and Gabe's mask on Monday.

Thought I'd take pictures of my boys in the bluebonnets today.  This idea didn't go over too well ...

After homeschool today Gabe made a silly mask with white paper, tape and string.

Here he is wearing the mask.  Next to him on the table you can see travel guides for several states, with Utah on the top.  Dan is really into the idea of relocating ...

Pensive ...

Happy!

Mom and Dad played outside with both babies this evening ...

... while I finished up Isis and Anubis.

"Ball" was Gabe's first word.  Max says, "Ba," but I'm not sure if it really means "ball" just yet.

Dan said the caption would read:  "Just before Max fell in the pond."  (He didn't, though.)

Feeding the turtles and hanging out on the pier.

The boys, playing their own version of dodgeball.

Gabe reads this blog every night and takes some of the pictures.  My helper!  He wants me to call this pic "Texas baby."  These bluebonnets are in Brian's yard.  Sorry, Brian and Clari, if they have a sat-on appearance now.

Snakes on Sunday.

Happy Sunday!  We did our shopping this morning, as usual.

When we ordered Gabe's toys for the week in the mail he complained that he was still going to want something at the store when we went shopping.  So I told him I'd buy him a rubber snake.

I knew that they sold rubber snakes for a dollar, and I wanted some for our Egypt party anyway.  Gabe managed to find a three-dollar snake, though.

The boys and Brian had fun chasing each other around and goofing off in the yard.

Getting sun and exercise ...

... sneaking up on Buddy ...

... and getting on his nerves.

Payback!

Maya and Papa.

I was busy painting Isis and Anubis for our Ancient Egypt party.

Then our neighbor Rick asked Dad to come over and identify a real snake on his porch so he could decide whether or not to kill it.  (I think they said it was a hognose snake, which is apparently okay, so it was spared!)

This is how Dan feels with all the oak pollen in our yard ... We were about to walk to Granny and Gramps' for dinner.

Gabe brought his snake on the walk and kept throwing it up in the air.  Predictably, it got stuck in a tree.

Today I taught Gabe, "Red and yellow, kill a fellow.  Red and black, a friend of Jack."  Happy Snake Sunday!

Tomball German Heritage Festival.

Today we went to the Tomball German Heritage Festival!  We found convenient parking at the home of Dan's grandparents, Mampaw and Amigo Starr.

We saw Buddy's cousin Kenneth at the Tomball Depot!

Kenneth showed us inside the depot station.

Here's Brian, looking for the time on the pocket watch of Thomas Ball himself.

The first thing the kids wanted to do was this tethered bouncing thing.  (They'd done it last year.)  Here are Joe and Gabe, high in the air!

Gabe loved it!

Maya tried it too!  We came at a good time because there were no other children waiting to get on ... so they let Gabe, Joe, Maya and some other kid bounce until they got tired of it.

Here are Joe and Gabe bouncing.  Behind them you can see Brian trying the challenge wall ... He didn't win a hundred dollars but had fun trying!

The boys tried climbing too.  Joe made it to the top and rang the buzzer.  Gabe got much higher than he did the last time, at least.

We listened to a German band while eating lunch.

Gabe, Joe and Maya rode the roller coaster ...

... spun around in a giant strawberry ...

... and slid down a big slide.

Afterward we stopped by Mampaw and Amigo's house.  On our way out, Gabe said his favorite thing was the bouncing.  Mine was the hamburger.  And as we were leaving, Dan said, "My favorite thing is what we're doing right now!"

Having a fun rest-of-our day!